Assange backed by Galloway

British MP George Galloway has been backing Julian Assange in his own unique way.

He has sparked outrage after claiming that the allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange "don't constitute rape" because the women in question admitted they were up for it. According to Galloway, if a woman decides to sleep with you, she automatically agrees to do what you want. If you do something she does not like it is just "bad sexual etiquette".

Galloway is the leader of the Respect party and the MP for Bradford West and was speaking about allegations lodged in Sweden against Assange. In a podcast also ironically entitled "Good Night With George Galloway", he said that if the allegations made by these two women were true. They don't constitute rape. At least not rape as “anyone with any sense” can possibly recognise it. He said that one of the women, had consensual sex with Assange the night before, meaning that she was "already in the sex game with him".

Galloway told LBC 97.3 FM said that Assange appeared to be facing “a very odd set of sexual molestation charges, to which many of us in some parts of our lives could have fallen foul." The warrant described one allegation against Assange that he had unprotected sex with one of the women, who could not consent as she was asleep. Galloway said that a woman met Julian Assange, invited him back to her flat, gave him dinner, went to bed with him, had consensual sex with him. Claims that she woke up to him having sex with her again. Apparently this sort of thing “can happen, you know.” We will take your word for it George. It might be really bad manners not to have tapped her on the shoulder and said, 'do you mind if I do it again?', Galloway said. But he said that it was not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning.

Needless to say Galloway has managed to offend a lot of people. Former First Minister Lord Jack McConnell twittered that Galloway has lost the plot. The only people who should judge this Assange allegation are courts in Sweden. Tory MP Louise Mensch also tweeted it is so ironic that George Galloway's political party is called 'Respect'.

However to be fair to Galloway it is quite common for male politicians to have a little bit of a problem in defining rape. Republican Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin claimed that women have biological defences to prevent pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape," making legal abortion rights unnecessary.

Assange himself has not made a reference to his alleged victims in any public statements since his arrest. Instead his supporters have portrayed the women as CIA stooges who are attempting to get him extradited to the US. Throughout his time in the UK, the US has not attempted to get Assange extradited and given that Theresa May wants to extradite everyone, this seems a little odd. Sweden on the other hand has been less keen to extradite anyone since it ended up having to pay a lot of dosh to some Egyptians who were sent home and tortured.